e-Digest Statistics about: Waste and Recycling
EU Waste Statistics Regulation: Introduction
In December 2002, the EU Waste Statistics Regulation (EC 2150/2002) was published in the Official Journal of the European Communities. The Regulation requires Member States to provide the Commission with information on the generation, recovery and disposal of waste every two years. Please see the PDF at the following link Waste Statistics Regulation.
The objective of this Regulation is to establish a framework for the production of European Union-wide statistics on the generation, recovery and disposal of waste. This should create the basis for monitoring the implementation of waste policy and compliance with the principles of European Union waste legislation with the aim of maximising recovery and safe disposal. Data should be reported every two years and the next return, pertaining to 2006, is required by mid-2008.
Data for the first reference year of 2004 have been compiled by Defra on behalf of the United Kingdom, and the 2004 return was sent to Eurostat in July 2006. A number of different sources of data were used to populate the reporting matrices. These various sources are discussed in detail in the quality report which accompanied the data submitted to Eurostat and is available on request.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland produced comprehensive Waste Statistics Regulation returns in order that Defra could produce a UK submission. Please see the following websites for more information about each countries return:
Scotland: Scottish Environment Protection Agency
Northern Ireland: Department of the Environment Northern Ireland
Wales: Environment Agency, Managing waste in Wales
Waste Statistics Regulation: Data
Detailed results as reported by each Member State for their 2004 data return will be published by Eurostat on New Cronos in 2007.
- The following summary tables have been derived from the UK data:
- Table 1: Generation of waste by Sector
- Table 2: Generation of waste by Type
- Table 3: Management Summary
- Table 4: Waste sent to recycling by waste type
- Table 5: Waste sent to incineration by waste type
- Table 6: Waste sent for disposal into land or water by waste type
The above tables are available for download in this Excel workbook. Some adjustments to the UK data reported to Eurostat have been made to make the data more comparable to previous presentation of waste information. These are described in the summary to each table below.
Table 1: Generation by Sector:
This table has information on non-hazardous and hazardous waste generated by sector in each UK country. The return to Eurostat included 'secondary wastes', that is wastes from waste treatment facilities. These wastes have been removed from the Generation tables presented here as including them leads to double counting of waste arisings.
Table 2: Generation by Waste Type
This table has information on waste generated by waste type in each UK country. Categories have been summarised where possible to be comparable with the waste management tables. Wherever possible data have been split to specific waste types, however in some instances the data are not available at that level and therefore information has often been grouped under 'household and similar wastes' or 'mixed and undifferentiated' categories.
Table 3: Management Summary
This table summarises the management of waste in each UK country and for English government office regions. The management routes are total waste sent to landfill, released into water, incineration with energy recovery, incineration without energy recovery and recovery of waste excluding energy recovery.
Table 4: Recycling
This table has information on hazardous and non-hazardous waste recycled by waste type for each UK country. Recycling is defined as the reprocessing in a production process of the waste materials for the original purpose or for other purposes including organic recycling (composting) but excluding energy recovery. 'Internal recycling', which takes place on the site where the waste was generated, is excluded from the return.
Table 5: Incineration
This table has information on hazardous and non-hazardous waste incinerated both with and without energy recovery. This information is by waste type for each UK country. Please note, a large proportion of incinerated waste is recorded under 'household and similar wastes' as a more detailed breakdown of waste type was not available.
Table 6: Disposal
This table has information on hazardous and non-hazardous waste deposited onto or into land (landfilled) and waste released into water bodies. This information is by waste type for each UK country. Please note, much of landfilled waste is recorded as mixed waste ('household and similar wastes' or 'mixed and undifferentiated') as a more detailed breakdown of waste type to landfill was not available.
Sources of data for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland:
A wide range of survey and administrative data sources were used in compiling the Waste Statistics Regulation return. The main sources are listed below and further information on each is available from the relevant department.
Commercial and Industrial Survey 2002/03 (Environment Agency)
Agricultural Waste Model (EA)
Construction and Demolition Survey (Communities & Local Government)
Fish waste (UK Fisheries Statistics)
Sewage Sludge Waste (Water UK)
Household Waste (WasteDataFlow)
Minerals Waste (BGS/Defra)
End of Life Vehicles (Capita Symonds - Mass Balance)
End of Life Ships (Maritime and Coastguard organisation)
Dredging Spoils (CEFAS)
Hazardous Waste (EA)
Disposal site returns (EA)
LAPPC Facilities (Defra)
Incinerator site returns (EA)
Smith Gore Survey (Welsh Assembly Government)
Commercial and Industrial Waste Arisings Survey in Northern Ireland 2004/05
Survey of Arisings and Use of Construction, Demolition and Excavation Waste as Aggregate in Northern Ireland in 2004/05 & 2005/06
Report on Municipal waste management in 2004/05 (NI)
List of licensed sites (NI) and sites exempt from waste management licensing (NI)
Commercial and Industrial Waste Survey 2004 (Scottish Environment Protection Agency)
Construction and Demolition Waste Study 2004 (SEPA)
Local Authority Waste Arisings Survey (SEPA)
Special Waste Consignment Notes (SEPA)
Licensed/Permitted Site Returns (SEPA)
Exempt Activity Returns (SEPA)
Incinerator Returns (SEPA)
Statutory Returns from Accredited Reprocessors (SEPA)
Page last modified: 5 January 2007
Page published: 5 January 2007